In Times of War
by Exzanosis
Summary: Senju Hashirama had a dream - a dream of peace, union, and prosperity. What if it didn't work out? A non-hidden villages story. AU. Naruto-centric.


A/N: Right, so, this is my first ever attempt at fanfiction and I wanted to do it right. I was up writing the outline for this for hours and hours before I ever started typing. I even made visual material so everyone can understand what's going on.

First of all, this story takes place in a world where Hashirama Senju never managed to make his dream of a shinobi village come true. Spoilers for the manga will be abound, so be careful. None are in this chapter, though.

Jutsu will always be called its Japanese name outside of a battle, with no English translation. In a combat situation, it will be formatted " **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone Technique)"** for ease of translation and so you don't have to reference a translation list every time someone shoots a spray of water from their mouth.

This story is M-Rated but will not feature detailed sex scenes or the like. I'm not writing a smut here, but I will be including certain things that are not exactly friendly to young audiences (references to torture, quite possibly actual scenes of psychological torture as I haven't decided on if I want to write physical torture.) Remember, this is a war torn and bloody world where the only law comes from who's the strongest.

Territory map: .

This map shows the territories of the various clans as overlayed on a map of the Land/Village territories. Credit goes to the Naruto Wikia for the original map, and credit goes to me for the bad paint job.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and if I did I Madara wouldn't have died in such a stupid way.

Humans have always been an interesting race. Blessed with intellect far surpassing most animals, a physique that allows for careful manipulation of various things and the ability to harness the spiritual energy known as chakra, one would think this race destined to come together and do great things, cohabitating in peace while working towards the prosperity of their people.

Instead, they quarrel like pups in a litter, fighting over the scraps of land and resources that they dub 'wealth'. Instead of taking the logical and prosperous path, they are ruled by their own emotions – envy, greed and ambition rule the lives of the average human. Oh, once in a while a truly altruistic specimen will pop up, but their proclivity to being exploited ensures that they don't last long. And those that do quickly wizen up to the way of the world and embrace the greed as strongly as any other.

Yes, the life of many humans is a pathetic struggle to grasp a single crumb falling from the bread of the lucky. And it needn't be, for they have the resourcefulness and ability to work together to great ends. But instead of putting that intelligence, that adaptability, that perseverance to succeed towards a noble goal, they choose to waste it on brutally murdering each other over the smallest patches of browning grass.

Kami, some of them even fight over sand.

Once there was a man who saw this world in the state it was, and managed to grasp the potential stored not within the individual, but with the collective. As the named heir of the Senju, one of the Great Four, he had the individual power to bring people together into a community. And he tried. He tried so hard that on the way he lost everything he once had.

Senju Hashirama was his name. A proud name, his father had said. A proud name for a strong Shinobi. From a young age he bore the responsibility of his clan's fate, but even under the conniving schemes of the Elders he held his dream. His dream of a united community, made up of the clans that controlled the Land of Fire. He was already in talks with the prideful Hyuuga, and had recently reached out to the Namikaze and Sarutobi clans with his proposal.

His proposal was thus: come together in the spirit of friendship and lend one another the strength to be truly great. There was no need for war between the age-old clans any longer, when they could easily establish a great settlement. A village. Hidden, of course, for the other clans would feel extremely threatened by such a power collective. His dream was of a hidden village that embodied everything he believed in – peace, harmony, and the cooperation of the Fire Clans. That was his dream.

Of course, while a noble dream, it was just that – a dream. While the Hyuuga and Namikaze had embraced his plea for peace, the warmongering Uchiha and the territorial Sarutobi did not. Any union between the clans at this point would spark a war the likes of which had never been seen, and Hashirama did not want to see such unnecessary loss of life. It was for this reason that he, like many others before him, abandoned his dream for peace. For prosperity. Instead, he used his great bloodline – the Mokuton – to create a forest spanning miles in every direction, to shelter and protect his clan and dissuade any attackers from disturbing the temporary peace he had created. Of course, the Uchiha and their fearsome Doujutsu had little trouble memorizing the paths of the forest and picking up the noticeable trails left by the free-spirited Senju. An invasion was led into the forest, spearheaded by the up-and-coming Uchiha Clan Head, Uchiha Madara. The fighting lasted a long while, and much blood was split on both sides. Madara himself escaped with minimal injuries, but his brother had not. Senju Tobirama, brother to Hashirama, had dispatched him with three quick slashes to the larynx. Hashirama himself had fallen while protecting his people from the initial attack, taking the brunt of close to a hundred Goukakyu no Jutsu's head on. His sacrifice had not been in vain. The Uchiha were forced out and on the run, their injured falling behind and summarily executed by the vengeful Senju. But that is a story for another day.

News of the bloody conflict spread to the other clans, and they quickly solidified their borders in case of attack. With everyone fortifying their positions however, nobody actually attacked any of their rivals, and thus a state of relative peace was embraced once more. Skirmishes still occurred, and people still died, but the hundred years of war that had followed the last direct invasion did not repeat itself.

In fact, the ideas of Senju Hashirama were adopted by two clans many decades later – the Uzumaki and the Namikaze, two relatively minor clans blessed with aptitude that served as a polar opposite to the other. The Uzumaki, who resided on the small island nation known only as Uzushio, sought an alliance with the stronger Namikaze clan in hopes of uniting their individual strength into a formidable clan of power and renown.

It was at the conclusion of one of many meetings that Namikaze Hirosha, head of the Namikaze clan, and Uzumaki Mito, head of the Uzumaki clan decided to arrange a marriage between their respective heirs. A document was quickly written up, and before dawn Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki were promised to each other. In the four years it took for them to reach the tender age of eighteen, many agreements and proposals were drawn up by the elders of both clans. The wedding was grandiose; the walls of Namikaze Tower were decorated with the symbols of both clans, the Uzumaki spiral riding atop the waves of the Namikaze in a symbolic depiction of their union. The two youth that took the centre were blushing, having fallen in love two years prior before being made aware of the arranged marriage. Really, the entire situation was perfect, they could honor their responsibility to their clan while living life with the one they loved most. The pact was sealed there and then with both a kiss and blood, joining the two clans together in matrimony and alliance.

The prestigious new clan took a name that was agreeable to both parties. After all, a new generation would be on the horizon, and deciding whether they were to be named Uzumaki or Namikaze was a bump in the road that their new alliance really didn't need. They settled on the name Umikaze, or 'Ocean Wind'.

Things preceded well, the island of Uzushio offering bountiful resources that the mainland hadn't been able to offer. Trade with the Senju and Sarutobi clans boomed, the luxury goods from Uzushio that were once unavailable to any but Uzumaki were now available to all. With the hole in the market, the newly dubbed Umikaze clan made an extreme amount of profit, and were able to build enough infrastructures with their funding that they could begin to rival some of the larger clans.

Two years passed in peace, and on the surface the Uzumaki and the Namikaze were living harmoniously in a manner that would make Senju Hashirama proud. However, there were those who were less than happy about the arrangement, having lost family to the violent wars with the other clan that had led to much more blood spilt than good done. These rebellious elements were minor however, and had very little impact on the blossoming Umikaze clan.

One thing did happen that had an overwhelming impact on the new clan, however. The streets of Uzushio and Nami alike were filled with joy when the pregnancy of Uzumaki Kushina was announced. The child was to represent the union between the two clans, and would lead the next generation into an era of prosperity. They had decided to call him Naruto.

Naruto's birth went without incident, being born at dawn on a drizzly day in early October. He was a tiny, bawling little bundle of blonde hair and blue eyes. Celebrations were had by all on this day, which was henceforth known as the day when the alliance became a true one. Of course, peace was not to last forever.

"Okasan!"

Stood in the doorway of her study was a small boy who had just turned three a month ago. Kushina looked up from the complex scrolls of Fuinjutsu at her desk and gave the young boy a motherly smile.

"Yes, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto had not stayed the bawling little boy he once was. In fact, he had become quite the little prankster in his toddlerhood, often being found sneaking chilli powder into the cook's dishes while giggling like a small boy was like to do. There was only one dish Naruto refused to tamper with, one that he had once accidentally sampled while being chased by the angry kitchen staff after one of his escapades. The dish, miso ramen, was usually fed to the soldiers of the clan as a nourishing yet cheap meal. Naruto had fallen in love with the dish, and it had taken weeks for Kushina to get him to eat anything else for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

"Karin-chan s-said my hair was stupid! S-she said blonde wasn't as good as red, and that it made me look like a girl!"

Kushina's warm smile only grew at this as she turned away from her desk, opening her arms to the sniffing boy with amusement in her eyes.

"Oh, come here honey."

Naruto took the opportunity to run at his mother, jumping into the warm hug that ended with him leaning over his mother's shoulder giggling madly as she tickled him.

"Now you listen here, Naruto. Your father has blonde hair and I happen to find him to be one of the manliest men you could ever find. Besides, you're an Umikaze. You're the best of both our clans."

Naruto's eyes widened at this, looking up at his mother with a growing smile on his face.

"Y-you mean it? You really mean it? The best?"

Kushina nodded, a faux-serious expression on her face as she gave him a regal look.

"Why of course, after all, you are my son."

Naruto giggled, his face brightening at his mother's words. Of course Karin was wrong, stinky Karin poo she was. His papa had blonde hair and he was the best ninja ever! Why he had ever listened to the older girl he didn't know.

"Now go and find your father Naruto-kun, mommy has some work to d-"

Her words were halted suddenly when the ground began shaking, books falling from their carefully organised places on the bookshelves. The air was filled with a foreboding feeling, and she shivered as a strange chakra flooded the area.

Naruto looked up at her wide eyed. So he had recognised it too.

"Okasan? What's that? I feel icky…"

Kushina gulped, turning to look out of the window. Whatever that strange chakra was, it was obscenely powerful. And it was getting closer.

"Stay here my little man, mommy has to go check something out."

Naruto gulped, nodding his head at her as he scuttled underneath her desk.

Meanwhile, a blonde haired man donned a white haori, muttering the words "Hiraishin no Jutsu" before appearing outside the joint Namikaze-Uzumaki compound.

What he saw both surprised him, shocked him, and made him want to find the deepest cellar and hide there.

Charging towards the small village was a huge red fox, taller than any building he'd ever seen and the same size as a small mountain. Behind it, nine equally huge tails were thrashing violently in the air. Its canines were easily the size of his entire body, and the orange-red chakra it was emitting was practically corrosive to his own.

And in its eyes were three tomoe on a red background.

Shinobi were already heading for it, launching a veritable armory of kunai, shuriken and poisoned senbon. Every weapon that met its skin just bounced off, as if they had hit a wall of solid stone. And it was speeding up.

Rushing from the opposite direction were a group of five men, each as seemingly old as the other, all of them bearing deep frowns as they stared at the great beast.

"Namikaze-dono, do you know what this is?"

Minato turned to the senior next to him with a small frown on his face. He had absolutely no idea what this Kami-damned thing was, but he had a feeling Uzumaki Etsu, head of the Seal Team would.

"No, I've never seen – or felt – anything like it…"

Etsu nodded, his eyes focused on the beast along with his team.

"There are nine beasts that roam this world, beasts with almost immeasurable power. We call them the Bijuu," he explained.

Minato stared at the approaching beast, enraptured as it killed more and more of his people.

"Each has a number of tails they correspond with its power, ranging from one to nine. Namikaze-dono, I truly hope my eyesight has gone. May I ask you to confirm that this beast does in fact have NINE tails?"

Minato nodded slowly, seeing the direction this little discussion was going.

Etsu closed his eyes, as if uttering a silent prayer for their lives, before swallowing down his fear and taking on a more commanding look.

"Then we are faced with the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the greatest and most violent of the Bijuu."

Minato's muscles tightened as his fears were confirmed. Not only were they up against a legendary – almost divine – beast, but they were up against the strongest of said beasts.

"Is there anything we can do to kill it?" It was a long shot, but Minato felt that he had to try. He was the heir of the Namikaze clan, after all, and had a responsibility to both his and his wife's people.

Etsu shook his head sadly, but still held a calculating look in his eyes.

"No. There is no way to slay a Bijuu, many have tried… but it may be possible to seal it." He looked almost guilty as he said it, as if he was suggesting something borderline blasphemous.

"May be? What do you mean may be?"

"Well..." Etsu sighed at this before continuing. "It is possible to seal the Kyuubi into a human container, or so it has been theorised. The container would have to have enormous chakra capacity…"

"I'll do it." came the voice of Kushina from behind them, dressed in full shinobi combat gear.

"Kushina?" Minato's surprised tone did not escape her notice. "Where's Naruto?"

"Hiding." she replied.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, Uzumaki-dono…" he looked downright uncomfortable at this point, as if what he was about to say was more terrifying than the hundred-foot beast towering above them.

"And why the hell not?"

"B-because the container must be… adaptable. It must be able to incorporate the leakage of the corrosive chakra into its coils, and adjust its body to the beast. In short…"

"It has to be a child." Minato whispered in a dour tone.

"Yes, Namikaze-dono. A child with exceptional chakra capacity and even more exceptional life force."

Minato turned to Kushina, and they shared a look for a moment. There was only one child that they knew of in the area with both of those things, and neither wanted to admit what they were thinking.

"Etsu-san… what if we were to seal it into Naruto?"

Etsu blinked at the pair for a moment, his mouth slightly agape as the idea of sealing the Kyuubi into the young heir ran through his mind. He had meant to take a child from the nearby orphanage, or ask for someone to give up their child for the greater good. But this…

"N-namikaze-dono, I don't know…"

"We've got no other choice, right?" cut in Kushina. "No other children in the area have the capacity of our son, or the naturally juiced up life force to hold the Kyuubi. If it must be our son..."

Etsu took in their resolute expressions, the strength in those eyes almost daring him to protest again. No, he understood. Their family had a responsibility to the clan, and if it meant sealing a divine beast into their son to do it, then they would do what they must.

"I…" Etsu's face hardened, his hand signalling his team to begin preparing. "Very well. We will set up the **Shishienjin** to hold the beast. We'll need reinforcements to force it down for the sealing, and…"

"We know."

Etsu nodded, raising his hand in the universal gesture for 'proceed'.

His team went before him, hands flashing through signals while he watched Kushina go to retrieve their son, and Minato summon a small wolf to gather reinforcements before joining him.

"So, Etsu-san, what's the plan?"

"We trap the beast in the **Shishienjin** , and then await the arrival of the seal team reinforcements. Hopefully we'll have enough to subdue the beast with the **Kongō Fūsa**. Then we'll work on the seal."

Minato nodded, before asking "Any ideas which seal to use?"

Etsu looked pensive for a moment, before nodding to himself. " **Hakke no Fūin Shiki** with a focus on the ocular area should work well for a fox. Its centre of power is… well, its centre. Sealing it in the head region should reduce the power it has to fight the seal."

"I see. We're here."

Of course, Minato's announcement wasn't needed. It was hard to miss a giant red fox emitting the foulest chakra either of them had ever felt. Needless to say, Minato was a little apprehensive about sealing that inside of his son.

"Begin!" commanded Etsu.

The four sealing experts nodded, making heavy use of the Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique) to position themselves in a square formation around the beast.

" **Shishienjin! (Four Violet Flames Formation)"** came the shouts from four different directions, before a monolith of purple flames rose up into the sky, trapping the great beast inside its burning walls.

The beast, seemingly uncaring, smashed into the complex Fuinjutsu with reckless abandon. It wasn't enough. Repeatedly the beast slammed its mammoth chakra into the wall, and repeatedly it was beaten back by the most violet flames. Every time they were just a little less violent in their reprimanding.

"This won't hold it for long, Namikaze-dono."

Minato nodded, taking out three special Kunai of his own design and looking the beast up and down.

"Can things pass through the barrier on this side?" he asked.

Etsu looked at him with surprise for a moment, before slowly nodding. "I can make a hole in the wall. It won't be large, and it won't last for long, but it'll be enough to get you in."

"Good. Do it."

Etsu gave him one last look, as if to wish him both good luck and condemning him as a fool at the same time, before releasing a small portion of the barrier.

Instantly, Minato was on the move, throwing a kunai through the hole and making use of the **Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God)** to teleport to it, before launching the other two at the beast and letting the flying one hit the ground with a thud.

The kunai, specialist as they were, managed to find purchase in the fur in the beast, if only because it was extremely knotted. Minato allowed himself to land on the ground, a swirling blue sphere of chakra forming in his right hand as he concentrated on one of his markers.

The beast had yet to notice him yet, which was good, but it was sure to notice him after this.

Within a moment he had teleported to one of his markers, the one which had landed on the back right leg of the creature. Without sparing a second, he drove the spinning orb into the creature's leg.

" **Rasengan!"**

The attacked failed to break skin, and merely served the purpose of attracting the beast's attention. Still, it would give the backup precious few minutes to arrive at the scene.

And said beast definitely gave Minato his attention. With a mindless, feral roar, its many tails lashed out at Minato, putting him through an advanced course in emergency acrobatics and having him do things he wasn't even aware his body could do. He ducked, dived, dodged, flipped, skidded, slid and spun out of the way of every tail that came his way in a true feat of shinobi skill, all the while wondering when the hell that backup was coming.

Deciding to abandon this little game of cat and mouse, he teleported to his second marker, the one that had hit the beast on the back. It didn't take long for it to realise where he had gone, and began the onslaught of tails again… but it was hitting itself in the process.

While he luckily hadn't been hit, he had seen the damage those tails had done to the ground and the mini-craters left behind in their wake, and wondered just how tough this thing's skin was. He quickly abandoned that train of thought to dodge out of the way of a particularly fast tail, the sharpened edge of chakra coating barely missing his right ankle as he did a quick Shunshin to avoid it.

"Nasty one, you are, you big fox."

This wasn't a fight he was going to last much longer in, let alone win. He chanced a glance out of the violet barrier, which seemed to have regained its power, before noticing the signature red hair of the Uzumaki – and more importantly, the bright blonde hair of his three-year old son.

He paid for his glance. A tail blindsided him at the last moment, lashing out and striking him in the back with the force of a landslide. It was only a very hasty Hiraishin that allowed him to avoid slamming into the barrier of flames, and another even hastier one that let him escape the barrier entirely to the seal he had placed on his wife on their wedding night.

"O-o-otosan!"

Naruto toddled over to him, barely able to stand for fear of the mammoth fox before him. He knew he had monsters under his bed, but none of them were as big as _this_ …

Minato coughed, letting out a small amount of blood along with it. Damn, he thought, those tails really pack a punch.

"It's alright, Naruto-kun. I'm fine. Just took a hit, not enough to put your otosan down." he said, ruffling his hair absentmindedly as he turned to the sealing division.

"Are you ready to subdue this thing? I'll warn you, it's a strong one."

The six men and four women that made up the sealing team saluted him in the form of a fist to the chest, nodding as they did so. They were the best, and damned if they couldn't seal this fox.

"Good. Hurry."

And they did hurry. Flashing through seals at almost unimaginable speeds. Tiger, Dog, Dragon, Monkey… the seals continued until four great chains sprouted from the back of each members, forcing their way through the violet flames to hold the beast down. The chains curled around its neck and legs, winding their way around its torso and arms until it was forced to the ground, demonic eye wide and three tomoe spinning rapidly.

" **GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"**

The chains seemed to be working, holding the beast down as the chains subdued the thing to be sealed. The four others and Etsu released the Shishienjin, letting the violet flames drop as they produced four of their own chains, winding around the torso to help force it to the ground.

Unfortunately, it seemed just forcing it to the ground wasn't enough, as the tails were still thrashing wildly, getting dangerously close to taking out on of the seal team members. There was no way they could get close to it like this, and it took all of their effort just to hold down the torso.

Kushina sighed, stepping up in front of the fox. It snarled at her as the demonic eyes narrowed in her direction, before she ran through her own hand seals at twice the speed of the others.

Nine chains sprouted from her back, each glowing a light, almost pink, red.

" **Kongō Fūsa! (Adamantine Sealing Chains)"**

One chain slammed into one tail, pinning it down with strength borne from a mother's love and a woman's strength. Kushina pumped every last drop of her extraordinary reserves into keeping the trails pinned, looking to Etsu with a pleading look.

"Do it, quickly, I can't hold it for long!"

Etsu nodded, looking to where Minato stood with Naruto, sorrow plain in his eyes.

"What's happening, otosan? Why is Etsu-jii looking at me like that?"

Minato looked down at his son, resolve in his eyes accompanied with regret and sadness.

"Naruto… we need you to be really strong, okay?"

"Huh?" Naruto looked baffled and scared, as if he was completely at a loss. He wasn't the only one.

"Ah… Naruto, you are going to be the hero that saves the clan. You're going to beat the big monster."

If anything that only made Naruto look more scared. His eyes widened, his breathing quickened and he shot a glance towards the snarling form of the Kyuubi.

"Me? I-I can't beat that! It's a monster!"

Minato smiled at him, a bittersweet smile. Filled with sorrow and pain but also reassurance and comfort.

"You won't be alone Naruto, I'll help you. We'll beat him together, otosan won't let you fight alone. After all, you're going to be the best ninja ever, right Naruto-kun?"

Naruto looked up at his father with equal parts disbelief and… resolve. If his otosan wanted him to be brave, and his okasan was going to hold down the monster, then he was invincible. No monster could beat his parents… even one that was really really big and looked like it wanted to eat him.

"Right!"

Minato ruffled Naruto's hair, the blonde spikes that were so similar to his own, before looking over to Etsu with a grim expression.

"Begin."

Etsu raised his hands, flashing through a well-practiced series of seals, some which many shinobi had no idea existed. At the conclusion, he placed his hand on the oversized snout of the Kyuubi, inhaling.

" **Hakke no Fūin Shiki! (Eight Trigrams Sealing Style)"**

The chakra of the Kyuubi began to flow into Etsu's glowing palm, his other hand held out towards Naruto. His teeth were clenched in pain as the corrosive chakra flowed directly through his coils, burning his chakra out until all that was left was the demonic chakra from the beast.

"Naruto, come here!"

Naruto nodded, approaching Etsu as his father walked beside him. When he was in touching distance, he gulped, before Etsu placed his palm over Naruto's eyes. He began to feel a strange chakra pulsing through him, and it felt just like the nasty stuff he felt in the air… but quieter. Less… abrasive. As if it wanted to rip him apart but couldn't because a massive brick wall was in its way, forcing it back.

Unknown to him, lines of kanji began to congregate around his eyes, circling them like some kind of makeup before extending down past his cheeks, past his neck, past his shoulders all the way to the backs of his palms. The kanji glowed the most luminous orange as the Kyuubi's chakra was forced into Naruto's young form.

While this was going on, the pressure on the sealing teams was slowly let up as the Kyuubi grew smaller and smaller until it was hardly the size of the average kitsune. And then, just like that, it was gone. Absorbed into the seal where it would remain for a long, long time.

But to Naruto, none of this mattered. All that mattered was the rapidly approaching darkness and the expression of his otosan as he fell back into his arms, the kanji's glow settling.


End file.
